London 2012: What It's Like To Cover The Olympics From New York

NEW YORK — Between Olympic soccer matches, NBC analyst Marcelo Balboa fields texts and emails from friends who ask him, "How's London?"

He wouldn't know. The three-time World Cup participant turned sportscaster is one of many at NBC covering the Olympics from a cubby equipped with a television monitor in New York, one of a warren of them lined up in the studio where "Saturday Night Live" usually originates. NBC has a team of 650 people working on London Olympics coverage from New York.

Outside of the soundproof booth's closed door, you wouldn't be able to hear Balboa if he shouted, "goooaaallll!" That's so as not to disturb Jason Knapp and Rich McKinney, calling an archery match from a different booth a few steps away.

A row of desks and computer monitors is the operations center for all of the video streams of competition that NBC offers on its Olympics website. An intern from Elon University edits footage for a stream dedicated to weightlifting. Some interns fetch coffee on their summer vacation; this one operated a network

In the seats where the "Saturday Night Live" audience usually sits, another crew is responsible for inserting commercials into the various video streams.

John McGuinness leafs through a sheaf of papers behind a desk in a control room, within sight of dozens of monitors providing video feeds of different sports taking place simultaneously across the Atlantic. The papers are a schedule of the day's events as they are due to be shown on NBC, the NBC Sports cable network, MSNBC, CNBC, Bravo and Telemundo.

While McGuinness, coordinating producer of NBC Olympics at Home, is allowed some flexibility to move things around, "you can't do this without a detailed schedule," he said.

McGuinness essentially coordinates the hours of coverage, many of them live, shown during the daytime on the various networks. He's in before 4 a.m. when competition is beginning in London and escapes to a nearby hotel for a couple of hours of sleep when NBC's prime-time telecast is on.

The New York operations center, used in past games but expanded for London, is set up to save money but also because there are limits to how many credentials NBC can get to operate in London.

While NBC hosts Bob Costas, Al Michaels and Dan Patrick work from studios in London, there's a separate studio down the hall from "SNL" where Kelly Tilghman sits. She's the host of MSNBC's daytime coverage.

Similarly, the announcers for swimming, gymnastics and basketball work at arenas in London but for many of the less popular sports like wrestling, team handball, badminton, field hockey, fencing, archery and shooting the work is done out of New York.

The announcing team works in one part of each cubby, with a producer and, perhaps, an assistant in the other half. They keep contact with the venue in London in case there are questions that need answering.

"If it happens away from the ball, that's the toughest thing," McGuinness said. "Unless they show a replay of something, that could be the hardest to cover."

Balboa was in Athens covering soccer for NBC in 2004, and in Beijing in 2008. With the U.S. men's team not qualifying for the games, NBC bet on less interest in the tournament. Balboa has had experience calling some professional soccer games remotely from Colorado. It's not ideal, but before high definition he'd sometime have trouble catching the players' numbers. That's no worry now.

He misses most the opportunity to see the whole field and feel a crowd's energy. The former player in him would like a better chance to see how a play is developing, yet he's at the mercy of the video feeds. He also resists speculating on injuries when all he has is a camera view, waiting for an official report if a player goes down.

If he were in England, he'd only be able to do one game a day with matches spread across different locations. In New York, he calls a couple of games a day.

"We get to see a lot of the teams before the first round is over," he said. "That's a huge advantage."

In calling archery, McKinney misses most not being able to tell how hard the wind is blowing, and in what direction. He watches for flags on the television monitor to give him clues about the conditions the athletes are facing. As a four-time Olympian with two silver medals, McKinney calls on his experience: being able to see a competitor's eyes gives him clues about what they are thinking.

During a recent telecast, McKinney described how the archers compensate for the wind by aiming just off the target depending on the direction it is blowing.

McGuinness said the New York-based on-air personnel don't try to pretend they are in London when they aren't. In Tilghman's studio, the backdrop is a New York skyline.

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NBC: 'No Offense Was Intended' By Commercial That Played After Gabby Douglas Win

NBC says no offense was intended by a poorly timed promotional ad featuring a monkey on gymnastics rings that aired on the network directly following a commentary by Bob Costas on Gabby Douglas' gold medal inspiring other African-American girls to take up the sport.

The gymnastics-themed ad for the upcoming NBC comedy "Animal Practice" was specifically timed to run late Thursday night following the women's gold medal competition. NBC said it was scheduled to run before the network knew about Costas' commentary.

"Much of America has fallen in love with Gabby Douglas," Costas said. "Also safe to say that there are some young African-American girls out there who tonight are saying to themselves, 'Hey, I'd like to try that, too.'"

Then NBC switched to the commercial with the small, widely grinning monkey on the rings. Blacks in the past have been disparagingly referred to as monkeys to the point where it is considered a common slur.

"Gabby Douglas' gold medal performance last night was an historic and inspiring achievement," said NBC Universal spokeswoman Liz Fischer. "The spot promoting 'Animal Practice,' which has run three times previously, is one in a series with an Olympic theme which have been scheduled for maximum exposure. Certainly no offense was intended."

It's the second time during the Olympics that a promotional ad has proven troublesome for NBC. It ran a "Today" show promo showing swimmer Missy Franklin holding her first gold medal a few minutes before airing the race where she won it.

RATINGS: Ratings continue very strong for NBC. Thursday night's prime-time telecast, featuring Douglas' win and a gold medal swim by Michael Phelps, was seen by 36.8 million viewers, according to Nielsen. That's 7 million more than the corresponding night four years ago in Beijing. NBC also said that five Olympic events have been streamed online by at least 1 million people. The top event, streamed 1.46 million times, was the U.S. women's gymnastics team winning the gold medal Tuesday, followed by Phelps' gold medal swim over Ryan Lochte.

BRANDI TIME: Been a rough Olympics for soccer analyst Brandi Chastain, what with Hope Solo trashing her on Twitter. Let's give Chastain some credit for prescience. Coming out of halftime of the U.S. team's 2-0 win over New Zealand on Friday, she preached patience for the U.S. team, noting the Americans had squandered scoring opportunities by rushing things near the opposition goal. Within three minutes, American Alex Morgan did precisely what Chastain had been pointing out, hurrying a shot that went wide right.

WEATHER: Jim Cantore is taking some time off from The Weather Channel to provide London forecasts as part of Olympic coverage (his network is owned by NBC Universal). Friday was beautiful, but Cantore suggested the good weather was short-lived. "It's going to get a little ugly and it can certainly impact the track and field events," he said.

PLAY THE GAME: Beach volleyball analyst Kevin Wong didn't take it easy on American defending gold medal winners Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhousser during their upset loss to Italy on Friday, criticizing them for having "no energy, no emotion." After one missed shot, he said, "Phil stops playing. Get in there and play the game."

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Mihaela Ursuleasa Dead: Renowned Romanian Pianist Dies At 33

BERLIN — Internationally renowned Romanian pianist Mihaela Ursuleasa has been found dead in her apartment in the Austrian capital, Vienna. She was 33.

The musician's agent, Andreea Butucariu, said in a statement from Berlin Friday that Ursuleasa had died on Thursday from the effects of a cerebral hemorrhage and asked for her family's privacy to be respected. Police in Vienna confirmed the cause of death.

Butucariu told Romanian media that Ursuleasa had recently cancelled two concerts in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, on unspecified health grounds.

Ursuleasa began playing the piano at 5 years old under the guidance of her Gypsy jazz musician father in then communist Romania. She obtained a grant to study in Vienna at 12, a year after communism collapsed.

She went on to play at New York's Carnegie Hall, with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester in Berlin, with Orchestre National de France and also with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Romanian soprano Felicia Filip on Friday reminisced about Ursuleasa's debut. "In my mind's eye I see the child lost in the immensity of the piano," she told Romanian news agency Mediafax, referring to one of the pianist's first public performances. "I recall a child who couldn't reach the piano pedals," she said.

"Mihaela was a huge pianistic talent with great musical instincts," said Bill Capone, managing director of Arts Management Group, who represented her. "Her untimely passing is very tragic and left those who knew her as an artist and person deeply saddened."

Ursuleasa is survived by a 5-year-old daughter. In a statement on the pianist's website, Butucariu asked that promoters "that had invited Mihaela for the next months" contribute towards an account for her daughter.

He said her funeral would be held next week, but provided no details where she would be buried.

"Artists like Mihaela are those who give us hope, help us feel and make us understand that music, and also art, prevails above everything else; that it makes us advance as human beings," Butucariu said in the statement.

"They make us realize that we are on the right path when we open not our eyes and ears but our hearts to listen, expecting music making to move us and take us someplace else. This is what Mihaela's music did."

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18th-Century Mummies Help Medical Researchers Study Tuberculosis In Hungary (PHOTOS)

One of the 265 mummies which is resting in cardboard box in the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest, Hungary.

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — One wears a prim white bonnet. Another sticks out its tongue, hands resting over abdomen. A third clutches at its chest, mouth seemingly frozen in a scream. They are faces from the past, trapped in the appearance they bore when laid to rest nearly 300 years ago.

And disturbed from their eternal sleep, these mummies may help unlock the secrets of the immune system.

Resting in cardboard boxes in long rows of cabinets on the top floor of the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest, the 265 mummies are helping scientists find new ways to treat tuberculosis.

Buried between 1731 and 1838 in the crypt of a Dominican church in the northern Hungarian town of Vac, the naturally-preserved mummies were forgotten for decades and discovered in 1994 during the church's renovation. They had lain in gracefully-painted pinewood coffins, some decorated with pictures of skulls.

The mummification process happened thanks to the favorable microclimate inside the crypt, including low temperatures and relatively constant humidity and air pressure. Wood chips placed under the bodies in the coffins absorbed fluids, so instead of decomposing, the bodies gradually dried out – preserving them in an astonishingly lifelike state.

Reflecting a wide sample of Vac residents, the mummies include three nuns, 30 priests, the wife and child of the local postmaster, surgeons, the founder of the Vac hospital and first director of the town's school for the deaf. "What was probably the most exciting and most comprehensive study was the one about tuberculosis," said Ildiko Pap, head of the Department of Anthropology of the Hungarian Natural History Museum. "In some of the individuals, the traces of the mutations on the bones caused by tuberculosis are evident to the naked eye."

According to the World Health Organization, nearly 1.5 million people died of tuberculosis in 2010, when 8.8 million new cases were reported. Around one-third of the world's population, over 2 billion people, has latent tuberculosis, which means they have been infected by the bacteria but do not show symptoms of the illness and cannot transmit the disease.

Pap said that all but 99 of the mummies have been identified and a large trove of information has been gathered about most of them, thanks to birth and death registers in the church, the names and dates on the coffins and other research done since their discovery.

The tuberculosis studies are being carried out in collaboration with experts from University College London and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Eighty-nine percent of the mummies, ranging in age from newborns to over 65, had at one point been infected with tuberculosis and around 35 percent were suffering from the disease at the time of death. The strains of tuberculosis found in the people buried in Vac offer a unique chance to study the pathogens from a time before the development of antibiotics and prior to the spread of the Industrial Revolution.

The discovery of penicillin and subsequent development of other antibiotics in the 20th century virtually wiped out diseases such as tuberculosis that were once major killers in developed countries.

But the overuse and misuse of drugs have allowed old bugs to fight back and eventually overpower antibiotics, rendering some useless.

"We can say that 89 percent of these people were infected by tuberculosis or its pathogen during their lifetime," Pap said. "Their immune system was likely better than ours. If we could locate some gene sections and discover why they were more resistant to tuberculosis than us, then that could be of great assistance to modern medical science."

She said that the study of the mummies could lead to the development of new tuberculosis medication or the discovery of genetic changes that have affected our reaction to the disease.

Dr. Ruth McNerney, senior lecturer in Pathogen Biology and Diagnostics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said that the research on the Hungarian mummies could provide a historical reference for the development of the disease.

"These samples were taken from before drugs were around ... so they represent early TB," said McNerney, who is not connected to the mummy research. "If we can pin down areas in the DNA of these mummies and see how they differ from modern (DNA), it might help us understand why modern TB drug resistance is developing."

Forensic expert Agnes Kustar has been working on the facial reconstruction of one of the most striking mummies in the lot – Baroness Antonia Tauber.

She was a nun descended from a prominent family, had a pronounced humpback and suffered from tuberculosis. Contemporary records describe the baroness as an excellent teacher – `zealous and loveable, a kind soul.'

To carry out facial reconstruction, experts need a detailed CT scan of the mummy, which gives a 3D picture of the skull. It can then be transformed into a plastic model identical to the original face.

This mummy has a special place in the hearts of the team.

"She has become a familiar person to us," said Kustar. "We were able to get to know her face and through it her whole personality."

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Derek McGlone, Teacher, Tries To Get Out Of Work By Lying That He Ran Over And Killed A Girl With His Car

Music teacher Derek McGlone, 42, lied to school officials, saying that he had just run over a girl with his car, in order to get off work for the day.

There's faking sick, and then there's telling your employers that you just killed a small child.

42-year-old teacher Derek McGlone was well known at Calderhead High School in Scotland for making up stories to get out of work, the Telegraph reports. At an August 1 hearing of the General Teaching Council Scotland (GTCS), McGlone admitted to lying on a number of occasions between June 2008 and May 2011.

In his most egregious fabrication, the music teacher told school officials that he had just run over a little girl with his car, according to UPI.

"He said he felt his car wheels running over her body," Calderhead High School head Joyce Kilmartin wrote in an official statement.

On another occasion, McGlone called from his home in Glasgow, claiming he was stuck in a volcanic ash cloud in Iceland.

At the Council, McGlone took heat not only for his lies, but for his reaction to being reported. After discovering that some of his colleagues at Calderhead had made statements about his conduct to the GTCS in April 2011, McGlone went on a"drunken rant" over Facebook. He admitted to the Council panel that he referred to his coworkers as "bitches" and wrote that he would "hunt them down," according to the Scottish Sun.

McGlone resigned later that year, the Mirror reports, but now says he wants to return to teaching.

"I can give no reasonable explanation for my actions," he told the Council, adding that he was "embarrassed and sorry."

The hearing panel concluded that McGlone's behavior "falls short the standards expected of a registered teacher." He received a reprimand that will remain on his record for 12 months.

The GTCS is an independent professional body with duties that include maintaining educational standards and keeping a registry of teachers in Scotland.

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Eric Glisson, Convicted Of Murdering Baith Diop, Says He Was Wrongfully Convicted

Eric Glisson (R), 37, with his attorney, Peter Cross, at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in New York.

NEW YORK -- Earlier this year, a man locked up more than 15 years for murder wrote federal prosecutors in Manhattan telling them what he'd said all along and what authorities hear from inmates all the time: that he was wrongly convicted.

But in this instance, Eric Glisson also named members of a violent drug gang he suggested were the true killers. It was a shot in the dark. But it turns out he may be right.

Authorities and defense attorneys say the letter has become a catalyst for a possible reprieve for Glisson and four other people serving time for the 1995 slaying of a cab driver in the Bronx – a homicide all say they didn't commit.

"I'm pretty optimistic I'll be released," Glisson told The Associated Press in a brief phone interview Friday from Sing Sing prison, 30 miles north of New York City.

"It's been an uphill struggle," he added. "But I've always believed right will overpower wrong."

After reinvestigating the case at Glisson's urging, federal prosecutors provided new evidence to the Bronx district attorney. The findings have not been made public, and a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office declined to comment.

But The New York Times reported Friday that they include an affidavit from a federal investigator who reviewed the case and concluded that the evidence was "overwhelming" that two convicted gang members "acting alone, robbed and shot" the Bronx cabbie.

When the 37-year-old Glisson heard federal authorities were prepared to take the rare step of vouching for a state convict's innocence, "I was elated," he said. But the elation subsided when Bronx prosecutors, after being presented with the new evidence at a meeting last month, balked at admitting they botched the prosecution.

Prosecutors told Glisson's attorney, Peter A. Cross, he would have to file a motion asking a judge to order a new trial – a process that could take months.

In his statement, District Attorney Robert Johnson said his office was taking the matter seriously, but had "not yet been able to resolve all of the questions that have been raised by this evidence." His spokesman declined to comment further on Friday.

Livery cab driver Baith Diop was gunned down on Jan. 19, 1995, amid a rash of taxi driver murders around the city. Press accounts had described how, according to police, the Senegalese immigrant begged for his life before being shot in the back and neck. Ballistics showed that he was shot with two .38-caliber handguns that were never recovered.

Rather than treat the crime as a fatal holdup, New York Police Department detectives and prosecutors linked it to a complex conspiracy by a band of drug dealers involved in the execution-style killing of a woman two days earlier. Investigators alleged that Diop was killed as part of a related scheme to steal a pile of drug money that one of his passengers was carrying that night.

At the first of two trials, three men were convicted in both the killing of the woman and Diop. At the second, a jury found Glisson and another defendant guilty in the cabbie homicide. All received lengthy sentences.

Glisson's lawyer said that as the years passed, his client exhausted all his appeals before writing the letter to federal prosecutors. In it, he said he had heard that the cabbie killing was the work of a gang called Sex, Money and Murder or SMM.

The letter, though addressed to a prosecutor who had left the office, by coincidence made its way into the hands of an investigator who was a former Bronx homicide detective familiar with SMM, the Times reported.

The names of two SMM members rang a bell: Both had confessed to killing a Bronx cab driver in late 1994 or early 1995 – an admission that couldn't be corroborated at the time – after becoming cooperators in 2003.

The investigator re-interviewed the two men. They described again how they were riding in a cab together when they decided to rob the driver. When he put up a fight, they shot him and jumped out of the car without knowing whether he was dead.

Glisson's hope that the investigator's belief in his innocence is his ticket to vindication is tempered by years of disappointment.

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Child Porn Ring Uncovered Using Stuffed Toy Bunny

These undated booking photos, taken by the national police in The Netherlands and provided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, show Robert Mikelsons, who was sentenced in Amsterdam on May 21, 2012, to 18 years in prison for abusing dozens of babies and toddlers. A child pornography investigation, which began when a Massachusetts man sent a photo of a young Dutch boy to an undercover federal agent in Boston, led to the arrests of 43 men in seven countries, including Mikelsons, and helped

DENISE LAVOIE, Associated Press

BOSTON — The men came from different walks of life on two continents: a children's puppeteer in Florida, a hotel manager in Massachusetts, an emergency medical technician in Kansas, a day care worker in the Netherlands. In all, 43 men have been arrested over the past two years in a horrific, far-flung child porn network that unraveled like a sweater with a single loose thread.

In this case, the thread was a stuffed toy bunny.

The bunny, seen in a photo of a half-naked, distraught 18-month-old boy, was used to painstakingly trace a molester to Amsterdam. From there, investigators made one arrest after another of men accused of sexually abusing children, exchanging explicit photos of the attacks and even chatting online about abducting, cooking and eating youngsters.

Authorities have identified more than 140 young victims so far and say there is no end in sight as they pore through hundreds of thousands of images found on the suspects' computers. They are also trying to determine whether the men who talked about murder and cannibalism actually committed such acts or were just sharing twisted fantasies.

The still-widening investigation has been code-named Holitna, after a river in Alaska with many tributaries.

"They are the worst of the worst," said Bruce Foucart, agent in charge of the U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agency's Homeland Security Investigations unit in Boston. "This isn't just a child that's nude and someone's taking pictures of him; this is a child that's being raped by an adult, which is horrific."

The case began to unfold when Robert Diduca, a Sheraton hotel manager from Milford, Mass., sent the photo of the Dutch boy to an undercover federal agent in Boston. Diduca, a married father of three who used the screen name "Babytodd," thought he was sending the picture to another man with a sexual interest in babies and toddlers.

Agents forwarded the photo to Interpol, the international police organization, and to several other countries.

An investigator for the Dutch police recognized the stuffed bunny as Miffy, a familiar character in a series of Dutch children's books. She also traced the boy's orange sweater to a small Amsterdam store that had sold only 20 others like it.

The boy's photo was broadcast on a national TV program similar to "America's Most Wanted." Within minutes, friends and relatives called the child's mother.

Robert Mikelsons, a 27-year-old day care worker who baby-sat the boy, was arrested. On his computer were thousands and thousands of images of children being molested and raped, including the boy holding the stuffed bunny.

Photos and online chats found on computers owned by Diduca and Mikelsons led to more than three dozen other suspects in seven countries, including Canada, Britain, Germany, Sweden and Mexico. The oldest victim in the Netherlands was 4, the youngest just 19 days old.

Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, whose office prosecuted Diduca, said the demand for photos of sexual assaults of young children, including babies and toddlers, has increased sharply in recent years.

"This demand leads to the abuse of children, yet there is this misconception that somehow, viewing child pornography is a victimless crime," said. "It clearly is not."

Diduca pleaded guilty to child porn and sexual exploitation charges and was sentenced to 18 years in prison. His lawyer, Richard Sweeney, said Diduca was sexually abused as a child by a Boy Scout leader. "He gets it, he knows he needs to be punished, he knows what he did is wrong," Sweeney said.

Mikelsons also received an 18-year sentence, followed by indefinite psychiatric commitment, after confessing to sexually abusing more than 80 children.

The horror did not let up after the Mikelsons case.

In May, authorities arrested Michael Arnett of Roeland Park, Kan., after finding pornographic photos he allegedly produced. Agents discovered the pictures when they searched the computer of a Wisconsin man who had been chatting online with Mikelsons.

What they found on Arnett's computer was unlike anything some of the investigators had ever come across: long, graphic, online chats about his desire to abduct, kill and eat children. They said he had also made photos of a naked 2-year-old boy in a roasting pan inside his oven. The child and two other boys Arnett allegedly abused and photographed were later identified and found alive.

In July, authorities arrested four men they say had online discussions with Arnett about kidnapping and eating children. Those arrested included Ronald Brown, a children's puppeteer from Largo, Fla. (A YouTube video shows Brown during an appearance on a Christian TV kids show in the 1980s. In the video, he tells a child puppet that he did the right thing by refusing to look at "dirty pictures" some other youngsters tried to show him.)

In excerpts of an online chat between Arnett and Brown from 2011, the two men appear to be discussing their desire to cook a child for Easter.

"he would make a fine Easter feast," Arnett says.

"yes, his thighs and butt cheeks would be fantastic for Easter," Brown responds.

A lawyer for Arnett would not comment on the allegations. Brown's lawyer did not return calls.

Prosecutors said Brown acknowledged his online conversations but said that it was all a fantasy and that he would never hurt anyone.

"Obviously the discussions regarding their claims of cannibalism are disturbing and a concern to our agency," said ICE spokesman Ross Feinstein. He said agents are following all leads "to make sure these individuals didn't follow through on any of their claims."

To find the young victims, investigators carefully studied thousands of photos, read hours of Internet chats and worked with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. They also employed some forensic wizardry.

After finding a video on Diduca's computer of a bound, 2-year-old boy being raped, investigators enhanced the images of furniture and carpet and determined the attack took place in a motel room in Bakersfield, Calif.

Then they pinpointed the date by way of a TV that was playing in the background in the video, figuring out exactly when a particular episode of "Family Matters" aired along with a certain Pepperidge Farms commercial.

A man from Black Forest, Colo., was arrested and is awaiting trial.

Similarly, in the Arnett case, investigators discovered that a water bottle in one of the photographs carried the name of a swim and scuba center in Overland Park, Kan. With the help of teachers at an elementary school, they identified three children shown in the photographs, including the toddler posed in the roasting pan.

The mother of one of the boys said she initially did not believe the allegations against Arnett, a family friend for about 15 years. She said her son, now 7, and several nephews often spent weekends at Arnett's home four or five years ago.

"Well, when we first got the phone call, we thought there's no way. You guys got the wrong guy," she said. The Associated Press does not identify victims of sexual abuse or their families.

But then investigators showed her photos Arnett had allegedly taken of her son with a shirt and no pants.

"Regret? For sending my son with a sick-minded guy, that's the only regret I have. I had no idea," she said. "It's depressing."

For the agents working on the case, the leads never seem to end.

Last week, they arrested another Massachusetts man after finding child pornography and photos of what appeared to be dead children on his computer. He allegedly had online chats with Arnett and Brown.

More arrests are expected.

"The agents that work for me are extremely driven on this type of investigation," said Bart Cahill, assistant agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Boston. "They really believe that they are taking out horrific violators and saving kids."

___

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These undated booking photos, taken by the national police in The Netherlands and provided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, show Robert Mikelsons, who was sentenced in Amsterdam on May 21, 2012, to 18 years in prison for abusing dozens of babies and toddlers. A child pornography investigation, which began when a Massachusetts man sent a photo of a young Dutch boy to an undercover federal agent in Boston, led to the arrests of 43 men in seven countries, including Mikelsons, and helped

DENISE LAVOIE, Associated Press

BOSTON — The men came from different walks of life on two continents: a children's puppeteer in Florida, a hotel manager in Massachusetts, an emergency medical technician in Kansas, a day care worker in the Netherlands. In all, 43 men have been arrested over the past two years in a horrific, far-flung child porn network that unraveled like a sweater with a single loose thread.

In this case, the thread was a stuffed toy bunny.

The bunny, seen in a photo of a half-naked, distraught 18-month-old boy, was used to painstakingly trace a molester to Amsterdam. From there, investigators made one arrest after another of men accused of sexually abusing children, exchanging explicit photos of the attacks and even chatting online about abducting, cooking and eating youngsters.

Authorities have identified more than 140 young victims so far and say there is no end in sight as they pore through hundreds of thousands of images found on the suspects' computers. They are also trying to determine whether the men who talked about murder and cannibalism actually committed such acts or were just sharing twisted fantasies.

The still-widening investigation has been code-named Holitna, after a river in Alaska with many tributaries.

"They are the worst of the worst," said Bruce Foucart, agent in charge of the U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agency's Homeland Security Investigations unit in Boston. "This isn't just a child that's nude and someone's taking pictures of him; this is a child that's being raped by an adult, which is horrific."

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Catherine Murch Killed Self, Kids In Murder-Suicide Overheard By Husband Mitch Murch

Mitch Murch II (bottom left) heard gunshots while reading at home on Monday shortly before finding his wife, Catherine, 9-year-old son Mitchell, and 11-year-old daughter Mary Claire shot to death in another room.

GLENDALE, Mo. -- A suburban St. Louis woman with a history of depression bought a gun two days before she killed her two children and herself while her husband was in another part of the house, authorities said Friday.

Mitchell Murch II called police Monday to report that he heard shots. Police who responded found 42-year-old Catherine Murch in the kitchen, 10-year-old Mitchell Murch III elsewhere on the first floor and 8-year-old Mary Claire Murch on the second floor of the house the well-to-do suburb of Glendale.

Police questioned Mitchell Murch II but said they believed the case was a murder-suicide. Still, nearly two dozen investigators with the St. Louis Area Major Case Squad were assigned to the case.

During an emotional news conference Friday, Lt. Tim Fagan said although investigators were still awaiting toxicology results, they were confident the shooting was a murder-suicide, as was originally reported. He pointed to three key pieces of evidence in determining that Catherine Murch was responsible for the shootings: an autopsy suggesting her wounds were self-inflicted, a receipt showing she bought the handgun used in the shootings from a St. Louis business two days earlier, and her longtime battle with depression. He said no suicide note was found.

Fagan said Catherine Murch had been fighting depression for several years but her condition seemed worse recently. He also said the family had been under some financial strain but didn't elaborate.

"She was having a difficult time," Fagan said.

Fagan said the size of the investigation was necessary to "get a very clear understanding of what happened." He had to stop and compose himself for several seconds when asked why Catherine Murch killed her children as well as herself.

"I have a picture of someone who loved her children very much. I know that's difficult for all of us...." He paused and appeared to be choking up. "Difficult for all of us to understand."

Fagan said the shootings happened in quick succession. Mitchell Murch III was shot several times, but Mary Claire and Catherine Murch were both killed by single shots.

Police said Mitchell Murch II was reading inside the home when he heard gunfire. When first responders arrived, they found him trying to resuscitate his son.

The deaths shocked the affluent neighborhood, where the Murches' stately, two-story brick home sits on a large, neatly manicured lot. Court records show the couple paid $764,900 for the home in 2007.

Catherine Murch graduated from the University of Missouri in 1992 with a degree in political science and received a nursing degree from Saint Louis University in 1994. Online records indicate she was a registered nurse.

Mitch Murch II, 43, graduated from the University of Missouri, also in 1992. He owns a maintenance management company.

The family was active in Mary Queen of Peace Catholic Church in nearby Webster Groves, and the children attended Mary Queen of Peace School, where Catherine Murch was a frequent volunteer.

Private funeral services are scheduled for Saturday at Cathedral Bascilica in St. Louis.

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John Wise Shoots Wife Barbara In Hospital ICU

AKRON, Ohio — Ohio police say a 66-year-old man entered a hospital intensive care unit and shot his 65-year-old wife while standing at her bedside.

Akron police said early Sunday that the woman is in critical condition. Akron General Medical Center spokesman Jim Gosky said Sunday afternoon that her condition had not changed.

John and Barbara Wise of Massillon (MAS'-ih-lawn) have been married 45 years.

Gosky says one shot was fired and security officers reached the ICU in about one minute. A doctor was in a nearby room.

Gosky says privacy rules prevent release of details why Wise had been admitted to the ICU a few days earlier.

Police say her husband is being held on an attempted murder charge and is expected to be arraigned Monday. No motive was disclosed.

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